If you have a loyal group of participants to your class or fitness studio, taking them on a TripTribe fitness retreat or vacation sounds like an awesome opportunity – especially when you get to travel for free as a TripTribe Ambassador!

Coach Kelly McCormack owns Club Inhale Exhale in Billerica, Massachusetts. This past May she traveled with a group of her clients to a ranch in the mountains of Costa Rica. it sounds like everyone had a great time and best of all, the check TripTribe sent her at the conclusion of the trip paid all of her expenses 🙂

This jungle resort in Costa Rica looks exotic and the cost seems reasonable for 5 nights.

I’m always on the lookout for ways that I can leverage my ACE group fitness or Pilates certification to benefit me and my family. In the past I felt very privileged to teach fitness classes in Jamaica and Mexico as a representative of Fitbodies inc. Every trip was memorable, regardless if it was my whole family, just John or with a girlfriend… okay, the girlfriend trips were extra special!

The one caveat is that a Fitbodies trip costs money for the agent’s fee and airfare – that’s part of why I enjoyed the girlfriend trips the best. I provided the agent’s fee and my friends supplied the plane tickets – often using miles.

Now I’m excited at the prospect of travelling for free… and maybe even getting paid to lead fitness activities at a place I’ve always wanted to visit – Costa Rica!

Update: Click here to hear a review of TripTribe from a studio owner who recently completed a trip to Costa Rica –

I’ve been learning about the travel opportunities offered through TripTribe.com. Their program is similar to Fitbodies – you teach scheduled classes at a resort – except with TripTribe.com you bring your own participants vs. instructing the people who are staying at the resort. I don’t know about you, but I much prefer to teach a class full of familiar faces 🙂

If a free trip doesn’t motivate you, well then you probably prefer to stay home.

How would you decide; Fitbodies or TripTribe?

I was discussing TripTribe with an instructor friend and John over dinner last week. This question came up… how would you decide?

The money part is always an issue (fitness pros aren’t very high up on the pay scale) so for a low (or no) budget trip, TripTribe.com would be the first choice.

The romance and privacy that comes from being at an exotic Caribbean resort, where not a soul knows you, can be pretty magical. I’m not sure why, but john and I are a lot less self conscious when we know no one the whole week. If that’s important to you then Fitbodies would be the best choice.

Also: if you have a young family and this will be your first vacation alone with your spouse in years, (John calls these our marriage enrichment weeks) then Fitbodies for sure! And it doesn’t appear that you can bring children with TripTribe.com

Traveling as a single, platonic couple or maybe you dreamed about being Julie from the Love Boat as a young girl? TripTribe could be exactly what you’re looking for.

Do you socialise with a group of singles from your club or studio? This would be a perfect TripTribe.com vacation where you bring all your peeps.

If you’re anything like John and me – many of your friends are members of your club, or customers at your fitness studio. Which is pretty common and makes complete sense when you stop to think about it. A successful group fitness class is built around a community of like minded people, working and sweating together. I’ll bet you also socialize with some of them outside of the club. They’re what you might call your “fitness friends”!

So would some of your “fitness friends” consider traveling on vacation together? They might… especially if someone organized the trip and made saying; YES! I’d love to go to Jamaica with you this winter, really easy to say yes to.

And for organizing the group you’d get to go for free? That would really be something, wouldn’t it?

That appears* to be what a new website triptribe.com is offering. You supply the group and they’ll do everything else.

I’m aware that Trek Travel offers a similar program to bike shops. The store recruits a group of cycling enthusiasts to go on a cycling vacation – often to Europe. With a large enough group, the bike store owner/manager gets a free trip in exchange.

Do you have a following of fitness participants/clients who you feel would be interested in traveling as a group on vacation?

You can learn more about this unique opportunity for fitness & mindbody Instructors here at TripTribe.com

*I’ve requested more information from TripTribe.com to clarify the exact details of their program.

Update: Damn spam filters 🙁 I finally heard from TripTribe.com and spoke with Meg Aidekman who’s the Co-Founder, Marketing & Communications there. She found my request burried in her spam folder. This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for Instructors.

John is planning to interview a Trip Tribe “Ambassador” – an Instructor who’s actually participated on one of these trips – in the near future.

I just wanted to post a quick note about our trip to Secrets St. James in Montego Bay as John and I are packing up to leave. We really love this place. The food is awesome and the service is top-notch.

I had good attendance for each of my classes @ 8:30 and 5:00 each day. I taught a combination of Yoga and Pilates which appeared to be appreciated by everyone.

As typical for us, we jumped on FitProTravel yesterday to look at options for us to return to the sun in a few months. We’re seeing a number of open dates and once we’re back in the states we’ll be booking flights.

I know it’s summer, but I needed a trip scheduled. This warm, beautiful weather is going to end long before I’m ready. When it does I’ll want to escape to a warm beach, even if only for a week. Past experience tells me that there are limited opportunities to travel where Amy and I can teach fitness, in exchange for an all-inclusive vacation at a resort in the Caribbean.

This morning, Amy and I booked our week in the sun! We’re traveling the week of December 7th – 14th and we’ll be teaching at the Secrets St James resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica 🙂

We were there a few years ago. This resort is awesome and only a 15 minute cab ride (on the wrong side of the road) from MBJ – the Montego Bay, Jamaica airport. Here’s a short video we made explaining what happens when no one shows up for your class – which is not uncommon and is nothing to be concerned about.

Teaching opportunities at Secrets are for Group Fitness and Mind Body certified Instructors = this will be an easy week for me as I’m neither. But I will help out. Many resorts schedule an early AM fitness walk, which I’ll do, so Amy can sleep in.

Amy’s teaching schedule will include a couple of Pilates classes each day. That’s it, unless we work a trade with the other Instructor to cover each other’s their classes one day, so we both have a full day off to explore Jamaica if we choose.

The company that makes these trips possible is FitBodiesInc. Amy and I have traveled with them for close to 20 years (has it really been that long?) and we have always enjoyed working with their president Suzelle Snowden. Suzelle was actually my very first guest on the Indoor Cycle Instructor Podcast back in 2008. Since then we have encouraged hundreds of other instructors to take advantage of these very low cost vacations.

Are you a tennis Pro or coach looking to take an all-inclusive vacation this spring? FitBodies,Inc. has these opening they need to fill ASAP!

TENNIS PROS – check it out. For a few short weeks you can book the all new JEWEL PARADISE COVE in Runaway Bay Jamaica. April 13-20, 20-27 and April 27-May 4 weeks are available for a tennis pro and your one adult companion. Log in and look for Jewel Paradise Cove to find these three dates only. No more will be available so take advantage for this limited time only. See our short review of this property below 🙂

Grand Lido Negril – Would love you tennis pros to book more weeks! Right now we have a special request for a tennis pro April 13-20. Travel to beautiful Jamaica and to one of the most amazing beaches in the world right out your hotel door. This is my all-time favorite resort in Jamaica.

Zoetry Paraiso de la Bonita – This wonderful property is looking for tennis pros too! You will find this resort available to tennis pros on our site but with no dates listed. You must first create a user profile and then contact Lisa at lisa@fitbodiesiinc.com to be approved and find out dates of availability. Sorry, Christmas and New Years weeks will never be available. Also keep in mind that there is a nightly per person fee to stay at this exceptional property.

John and I have a delightful time teaching fitness classes at Jewel Paradise Cove Resort in Jamaica – so here’s a short review in pictures. We both highly recommend this resort – create a free user profile to check availability

This property is gorgeous – they’ve done a beautiful job with the restoration and upgrades from the old resort. I took this from the tower that leads to the disco and entrance to the water slide – very fun 🙂

Bishop is the local Fitness Pro. He and I worked out the schedule for the week on Monday morning. I had two classes a day – off on Saturday. We’d alternate between a Pilates and Spinning class + an 11:00 pool class. John helped out with a few of the early 7:00 AM power walks.

View from our balcony, looking at the inner courtyard pool and hot tub. A swim up bar is beneath the platform. We found the rooms very nice (but not overly large) and the housekeeping staff did a great job cleaning up after us and keeping us with clean towels.

My Pilates classes were out on this pier – the view and sounds of the ocean were awesome.

Last “Mudslide” of the trip with one of the entertainment staff.

John with Barbie – who was fantastic keeping everyone feeling welcome!

Would we return to teach there again? Absolutely.

Although I do need to caution you that Jewel Paradise Cove has a very small beach. Actually the whole resort is one of the smallest properties we’ve stayed at. For John and I small is fine, we don’t feel compelled to do much beyond hang at the beach.